Kamado-style cookers are indeed more expensive than equivalent metal smokers or your average gas grill. However, among the many benefits of cooking with a kamado-style cooker is the incredible versatility possible with these cookers, both in terms of the range of temperatures you can achieve as well as the variety of foods you can cook.

Look at the thermometer to the left. You'll find a variety of foods that can be cooked over a wide range of temperatures on kamado-style cookers. Temperatures ranging from 100 to over 1200 degrees are possible. Foods ranging from slow cooked barbecue pork to Bananas Balinese to pizza to spatchcock chicken to naan bread are easy to make on a kamado-style cooker.

Legend:   Kamado-style Cookers   Tec Infrared Grill   Cheap Gas Grill   Weber Kettle   Weber Smokey Mountain   Hasty-Bake Charcoal Grill   Traeger Pellet Cooker 1200 Notes: The temperature ranges shown for the various cookers all come either from manufacturer claims or claims made by owners of the individual cookers. The 1200 degree temperature for searing meats was measured at the cooking grid. All other figures are dome temperatures. Entries shown green in green are links to recipes. While the TEC Infrared cooker can indeed achieve an incredible temperature range, research on the web indicates it only really excels at searing meats at high temperatures.